Material handling container



Dec. 25, 1956 J. M. PHILLIPS MATERIAL HANDLING CONTAINER Filed Sept. 12, 1952 INVENTOR.

JAMES M. PHILLIPS.

United States Patent MATERIAL HANDLING CONTAINER James M. Phillips, Pittsburgh, Pa., assignor, by mesne assignments, to Salem-Brosius, Inc., a corporation of Pennsylvania Application September 12, 1952, Serial No. 309,287

7 Claims. (Cl. 220-4) This invention relates to material handling containers.

. More particularly the invention relates to a fork truck type of pallet and a knock-down material handling box erectable therein.

The fork truck has been found to be very efiicient and convenient means for transporting and storing a large number of diflerent kinds of articles and products. The fork truck is used with a pallet and the product container may be a part of or separate from the pallet.

Usually the pallet containers are built very strong and form an excellent means by which heavy products may be transported by motor or rail from a place of manufacture to a place of use. The size and shape of the materials to be shipped vary widely so that it is advantageous to have a knock-down container which may be readily erected to fit the product to be transported in the container.

The primary object of the present invention is to provide a pallet with a knock-down container which may readily be fitted for the type of products to be transported or stored.

Another object of the invention is to provide a knockdown construction of a container which may be easily erected on a pallet to form a strong pallet container.

A further object of the invention is to provide a knock-down construction for a container by which the par-ts may be readily assembled in collapsed form suitable for return shipment to a distant point for reuse.

With these and other objects in view the invention consists in the pallet and knock-down container hereafter illustrated and described and particularly defined in appended claims.

The various features of the invention are illustrated in the accompanying drawings in which Fig. 1 is a perspective view of my improved pallet with the knock-down container erected thereover.

Fig. 2 is end view of the pallet container of Fig. 1 showing a second pallet erected on top of an assembled container;

Fig. 3 is a sectional view showing the shape of the container side;

Fig. 4 is a view in side elevation; Fig. 5 is sectional view taken on the line V-V of Fig. 4; and Fig. 6 is a sectional view taken on the line VIVI of Fig. 4 showing design and construction of the container corner stakes; and

Fig. 7 is a perspective view showing the bottom of the pallet of the container.

The preferred form of the pallet container illustrated in the drawings consists of a pallet which forms the base of the container, four stakes which are mounted in the pallet at the corners thereof and four side plates which form the sides of the container and are held in position by the stakes.

The pallet 10 has a corrugated deck plate 12 resting on top of a series of posts made up of corner posts 14, intermediate posts 16, and a center post 18. Under the posts is mounted a base 20 which is made up of side 2,775,360 Patented Dec. 25, 1956 1 Ice channels 22 and internal cross channels 24. Intermediate posts 16 are mounted under the junction of the side channels 22 with the cross channels 24 and the central post 18 is mounted under the junction of the intermediate channels 24. It is important tohave the deck and base plates well supported to give suflicient strength to the pallet for lifting the loaded container and for stacking the containers into any desired height.

The corner posts 14 have a rectangular shape and are hollow to form a rectangular opening 26 therethrough. To build a container on the pallet 10 corner stakes 28 are mounted in the rectangular openings 26 in the pallet, then the sides plates are positioned between the stakes.

Referring to Figs. 4, 5 and 6, the construction and design of the stakes are illustrated. Each stake is made up of outside angle plate 30 and an inside angle plate 32. The angle plates 30 and 32 are spaced apart and united adjacent their upper ends by a diagonal web 34 which is welded in the inside angles of the angle plates 30 and 32, the lower end of each angle plate 30 being supported as hereinafter described. The angle 31 is secured within the root of angle 30 above web 34, forming guides for the side plate 44. With this construction channels 36 and 38 are formed longitudinally of the stakes which are adapted to receive the side plates of the container. The bottom portion 40 of each stake has a rectangular cross section as illustrated in Fig. 6. This rectangular portion is arranged to closely fit and extend down into the opening 26 in the corner post 14 to a partition 39 therein. The bottom portion 40 is made by inserting an angular member 42 between the outside angle 30 and inside angle plate 32 to form the base which fits into the post. The base 40 is olfset from the main body of the stake as illustrated in Figs. 1, 2 and 4 so that the body of the stake lies within the corner of the pallet. The upper ends of the angle 30 of the stakes are shaped to extend into the rectangular opening 26 up to the partition 39 when containers are stacked.

The side plates 44 for the container are illustrated in Figs. 1, 2 and 3. Each plate has one or more corrugations 46 therein depending upon the height of the container. As illustrated in Figs. 1 and 2, a single corrugation is used while in Fig. 3 a plate is shown having two corrugations. These corrugations act to strengthen the plate and also are shaped to closely fit within the channels 36 and 38 in the stakes. The top and bottom of the plates have a reinforcing curl 48 which closely fit within the stake channels at the top and bottom thereof. The curls 48 also provide asmooth top for the sides of the container.

The pallet 10 can be used alone as a means of transporting and storing materials. With the stakes and sides, one, two, three, or four sides may be used in making up a container. As illustrated in Fig. 2, containers of the type shown in Fig. 1 may have a pallet nested on top thereof. Any desired number of assembled containers may be stacked one on top of another and may be held into position by the penetration of the stakes into the posts of the pallet. If desired when stacking the containers, one or more or all of the sides may be omitted but the construction allows most any type of arrangement of containers as desired. Furthermore, the close fit of the stakes in the pallet and the fit of the plates. in the stakes form -a strong fixed-shaped container adopted. for handling heavy materials.

As illustrated in Fig. l, the sides may not all havethe same length so that an oblong container will be.

The knock-down construction illustrated in the draw ings also permits the container to be knocked down and placed in a form whereby the parts may be assembled into a small bundle for return shipment of the disassembled parts to a place where the container is again to be assembled and filled. The pallet of the present invention can be used equally well with a fork truck and a pallet truck.

The preferred form of the invention thus having been described what is claimed as new is:

1. A knock-down container adapted for vertical stacking and for disassembly for re-shiprnent a substantially flat assembly to points of loading or for use of the cont ainer base as a pallet, comprising a rigid base portion having spaced top and bottom surfaces connected by rigid corner and intermediate side posts providing openings for reception of the forks of a lift truck, the top and bottom base surfaces at each corner thereof having suitably shaped bottomed openings therein for reception of corner stakes, the openings in the upper surface extend downwardly into the adjacent corner posts of the base to provide both lateral and vertical support for corner stakes, the opening in the bottom surface extending upwardly into the adjacent corner posts providing stacking seats for the top of the corner stakes of an adjacent similar container, a stake for each corner of the container having angularly disposed side portions forming the corners of the container body above the base and an opposing angular member secured in spaced relation to the angle of the stake to provide channels for reception of the side walls of the container, and container body side walls for spanning the space between the corner stakes at each side of the container and received within the said stake channels to complete the body of the container.

2. The knock-down containers defined in claim 1 in which only the length of the side plates and the close fit of the stakes in the post openings and the close fit of the plates in the stake channels are relied upon to form a strong fixed shape container.

3. The knock-down container defined in claim 2 in which corrugations are formed in the side plates to extend paralleled to the deck of the pallet, and the top and bottom edges of the plates are curled to closely fit within the channels in the stakes.

4. The knock-down container defined in claim 1 in which the ends of the inside angles of the stakes are positioned to engage the top of the associated base and underside of a stacked container providing additional support for the stacked container and base of stacked pallets to determine the penetration of the stakes into the corner post openings.

5. The knock-down container as in claim 1 wherein the corner stakes are provided with a stop adjacent the outermost angle of each stake providing for support of the body side walls in a direction longitudinally thereof.

6. The knock-down container defined in claim 1 in which the tops of the stakes are sized and shaped to extend into the bottom openings of the base of a like container when such like container is stacked thereon.

7. The knock-d own container defined in claim 1 in which the pallet and the container are formed of sheet metal and the bottoms of the stakes are offset to form the portion to extend into the openings in the top portion of the base whereby the stakes lie within the corners of the base.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,016,259 Frey Feb. 6, 1912 1,706,028 Johnson Mar. 19, 1929 2,169,450 McCutchen Aug. 15, 1939 2,359,406 Crosser Oct. 3, 1944 2,456,929 Dee Dec. 21, 1948 2,497,453 Hazen Feb. 14, 1950 2,503,562 Porter Apr. 11, 1950 2,579,655 Donald Dec. 25, 1951 FOREIGN PATENTS 408,173 Great Britain Apr. 5, 1934 620,319 Great Britain Mar. 23, 1949 

